2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger Tungsten
Ram
DETROIT — Automaker Stellantis plans to provide an industry-first electrical pickup truck known as the Ram 1500 Ramcharger that is outfitted with an electrical generator and a gasoline engine.
If that appears like an oxymoron, here is the way it works: The truck can function as a zero-emissions EV till its battery dies and an electrical onboard generator — powered by a 27-gallon, 3.6-liter V6 engine — kicks on to energy the automobile.
The consequence is a truck with the advantages of an EV, similar to quick acceleration and a few zero-emissions driving, with out the vary nervousness synonymous with most present electrical autos, in line with Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis.
“This is the final reply for the battery-electric truck. No one else has obtained the rest prefer it,” Kuniskis advised reporters throughout an occasion. “This is going to be a sport changer for battery-electric vehicles.”
The 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger is anticipated to go on sale in late 2024 alongside a beforehand revealed all-electric Ram 1500 truck with out a gas-powered engine or range-extending electrical generator.
Stellantis estimates the vary of the Ramcharger to be as much as 690 miles, together with as much as 145 miles powered by a 92 kilowatt-hour battery when totally charged with out the extended-range energy from the gasoline engine and 130 kilowatt electrical generator.
That vary compares with as much as an anticipated 500-mile vary of the all-electric Ram 1500 REV pickup. It additionally tops the present Ram 1500, which has a 3.6-liter V-6 engine and an as much as 26-gallon tank with a whole vary of as much as 546 miles, in line with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Stellantis didn’t announce pricing of the Ramcharger, which was revealed Tuesday as a part of a redesign of present gasoline-powered Ram 1500 pickups for the 2025 mannequin yr.
‘Not a PHEV’
Kuniskis mentioned the Ramcharger is meant as a bridge between conventional vehicles with inner combustion engines and all-electric ones, which presently face vital hurdles concerning charging infrastructure and vary nervousness, particularly when the autos are towing — a primary purpose to buy a truck.
Such enhancements might be a differentiator for the model, in line with Stephanie Brinley, affiliate director of AutoIntelligence for S&P Global Mobility.
“It works to handle the incontrovertible fact that proper now the {industry} and the pickup truck section in specific is not prepared to only flip to EVs 100%,” she mentioned. “It addresses a few of these efficiency and vary nervousness issues, and it is robust.— But the troublesome half is going to be getting shoppers to actually perceive what it does.”
2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger Tungsten
Ram
Similar propulsion expertise — known as extended-range electrical autos, or EREVs — is obtainable in abroad markets, particularly China. It’s additionally equally been provided in autos similar to the discontinued Chevrolet Volt sedan from General Motors.
Stellantis engineers mentioned the primary distinction between the expertise of the Ramcharger and the Volt is that the truck is being solely propelled by electrical motors, not the automobile’s engine, as soon as the battery dies. It’s additionally anticipated to be the first utility of it in a manufacturing full-size pickup truck.
The Ramcharger options 663 horsepower and 615 foot-pounds of torque and may obtain 0 to 60 miles per hour in 4.4 seconds, Stellantis mentioned. The truck shall be able to bidirectional charging, the place the automobile acts as a generator to energy home equipment and even an complete house, the firm mentioned.
Kuniskis, who additionally leads Stellantis’ Dodge model, declined to touch upon whether or not the expertise of the Ramcharger shall be used in different autos. Other Stellantis manufacturers embrace Chrysler, Jeep and Fiat in the U.S.
The Ramcharger operates in a different way from present plug-in hybrid electrical autos, or PHEVs, that supply a vary of all-electric driving, adopted by an engine powering the automobile after the battery is depleted.
Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis unveils the Charger Daytona SRT idea electrical muscle automobile on Aug. 17, 2022 in Pontiac, Mich.
Michael Wayland / CNBC
“The Ramcharger is not a PHEV,” Kuniskis mentioned. “It’s a battery-electric truck with its personal onboard, high-speed charger.”
“There’s no connection between the engine and the wheels,” he mentioned. “The gasoline generator is solely there to cost the battery.”
Ram’s truck technique is totally different from its main rivals GM and Ford Motor. The latter is providing conventional, hybrid and all-electric variations of its F-150 full-size truck, whereas GM has mentioned it plans to transition from conventional vehicles to electrical ones with out the use of hybrids.
Stellantis presently provides PHEV variations of autos similar to the Chrysler Pacifica minivan and Jeep Wrangler and Grand Cherokee SUVs.
Bye-bye Hemi
The design of the Ramcharger is a combine between the all-electric Ram 1500 REV and the refreshed gasoline variations of the conventional vehicles, which shall be obtainable early subsequent yr.
The Ramcharger consists of illuminated traces throughout its grille from the headlamps, new badging that debuted on the all-electric truck and different design and facia parts between the two.
For the conventional Ram 1500 fashions, the largest change is the firm is dropping its well-known Hemi V-8. Replacing the present 5.7-liter Hemi engine provided in the truck shall be a twin-turbocharged, inline-six-cylinder engine known as the Hurricane.
Ram’s 2023 Super Bowl advert debuts the manufacturing model of the Ram 1500 REV electrical pickup that is anticipated to go on sale in late 2024.
Screenshot
“Some prospects are going to be upset that you just’re not going to have a Hemi in there,” Kuniskis mentioned. “Sure, the Hemi’s an absolute legend. Americans love the Hemi, however this factor flat out outperforms the Hemi.”
The 3.0-liter Hurricane engine is rated at 420 horsepower and 469 foot-pounds of torque, whereas a high-output model of the engine is rated at 540 horsepower and 521 foot-pounds of torque. That compares with the present V-8 Hemi at 395 horsepower and 410 foot-pounds of torque.
Inline-, or straight-, six-cylinder engines have been used in U.S. autos by automakers similar to BMW and Jaguar, nevertheless, they’re removed from mainstream in the U.S.
Other adjustments to the vehicles embrace a new luxurious mannequin known as Tungsten and a efficiency variant known as RHO changing Ram’s high-output TRX pickup that is outfitted with a Hemi 6.2-liter V-8 able to 702 horsepower and 650 foot-pounds of torque.